For the past fifteen years or so, it seems like every carmaker’s tried to become a mobility company. Car-sharing exercises that haven’t worked, subscription services that people don’t want to pay for, autonomy timelines that keep getting readjusted. Want to be a real mobility company? Build a feasible transportation device that isn’t a car. Toyota is no stranger to this approach. It’s made the tiny C+Pod low-speed vehicle, the C+Walk S mobility scooter, and now it’s looking to get outdoorsy. This little thing is called the Land Hopper, and it’s joyously unusual.
Last year, Toyota unveiled the Land Cruiser FJ, a budget-friendly compact body-on-frame Land Cruiser for … well, probably not us. Not with a diesel engine at launch, at least. However, Toyota also unveiled something called the Land Hopper Concept, a micromobility device that the marque claims is designed for running on dirt. As Toyota described it, the Land Hopper Concept “Allows users to experience the joy of off-road riding on trails (primarily unpaved paths in mountains and forests), going beyond where the Land Cruiser can take them, expanding the pleasures of travel beyond everyday use to touring at travel destinations through its ability to be stored in a vehicle’s luggage area.”
At the time, it looked like a flight of fancy, a conceptual project that probably didn’t make sense to mass produce. Besides, the Land Cruiser FJ stole the show. However, Toyota announced this week that the Land Hopper is actually headed to production next Spring, so let’s take a closer look at this unusual little machine.
You can’t really call the Land Hopper a bike because it actually has three wheels, two chain-driven ones at the front and one at the back. The rear wheel features full swing-arm suspension with a spring and damper, and you get disc brakes on both axles. It’s a big step up from say, solid rubber wheels and no suspension, but mild off-road ability and a brace of lights isn’t the Land Hopper’s party piece.
That’s because the Toyota Land Hopper folds. The handlebars drop down, the entire swing arm assembly pivots forward, and the seat can be removed so that this electric trike becomes a trunk item of sorts. Thanks to such compact storage, I can already imagine this thing as a pit bike for racing crews, or as a last-mile thing from the train to your office. In fact, it’s not the only electric scooter-like thing from a Japanese carmaker to operate in this way.
Some 45 years ago, electric scooters weren’t really a thing, so Honda built a tiny fold-up 49 cc gasoline scooter designed to fit in the trunk of its City II hatchback. The original Motocompo was an undeniable hit, so when the marque announced a spiritual successor nearly three years ago, the hype was absolutely enormous. With no suspension, a top speed of 15 MPH, and a range of just 12 miles, the Motocompacto is a far more spartan machine than the Land Hopper. It’s also reasonably cheap, with an MSRP of $995. It’s an absolute blast to ride and folds up into a package slightly larger than a carry-on, but I couldn’t imagine taking it further off-road than a cobbled walkway.
While there’s still no word on pricing or performance of the Toyota Land Hopper, I’m keeping an eye on it. At the minimum, it’s going to be a properly cool period-correct accessory in a few decades’ time. Best-case, I’d love to take one for a rip. Come on, Toyota. Bring them across the Pacific.
Top graphic image: Toyota
If this trike goes where a Land Cruiser can’t I think it means your Land Cruiser is seriously poor at off road.
These things (including the Honda briefcase one) are cute and pleasantly weird, but usually too expensive for how infrequently they’d get used. Also: I like the two front wheels like on some Euroscooters, but really: necessary?
Also: I haven’t felt the urge to buy any new Toyota in years, but if they let us have that little baby FJ here in America, as a diesel or hyrid, I’d be sorely effin’ tempted.
It’s always funny to me to see who/how these car companies advertise their products. This is dead on arrival.
I know C’s get degrees, but Toyota C+riously needs to fire their product naming department.
That FJ is right up my alley especially if they decided to hybridize it – but I recognize there’s not a lot of room there plus Toyota and truck packaging don’t seem to mesh the best these days) but I just can’t see North America being kind to it north of the US-MX border.
I don’t see how these “transportation devices” are any different than the autonomy hype, car-sharing services, or subscriptions that haven’t taken off. Maybe all the people cruising around on C+Walk S’s go to a different school?
I’m getting tired of every company becoming a “tech company” that offers a bunch of “new and exciting!!” products that don’t do anything better than 100+ year old tech like bicycles.
Looking forward to buying one on FB marketplace after it rots in a garage for a few years. I hope the battery is swappable with something standard.
Better hope the tires are a fairly standard size as well!
The wheels? maybe not. The tires? Absolutely. Just figure out the ETRTO dimensions and make a special order. You can still buy UK 28” tires for bikes that haven’t been made since the 1950s.
I had such a hard time finding the correct “27 x 1 3/4″ tires for two old 3-speed bikes I was restoring – One 27″ size is ETRTO 44-630 (ISO 630 mm) and one is 47-571 (ISO 571 mm), not to be confused with the 27” Danish tire size which is 40-609 (609 mm)!
I really, really don’t think those front wheels are driven, let alone with chains. But this thing is wild and I love it.
I thought the same, but they do seem to have something funky going on up front and I found an image that has it semi-visible.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9IhaW-bIAA7Vt9.jpg
Might be a front motor with two clutched chains, to allow it to turn without immediately vaulting you face-first into rocks. Weird little bike.
One more from the Wikipedia page. Some chaintastic proportional tilt tensioning visible there.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Toyota_Land_Hopper.jpg
That’s fascinating! Also quite a different vehicle in that photo
That clears things up. The chain is for the tilt mechanism not to drive the wheels.
Agreed – the rear definitely has a big hub motor in there. I’d wager the chains aren’t related to propulsion at all.
I’d be willing to buy one to give a try. I just want the footpegs to be able to hold my whole body weight (around 190lbs) so I don’t have to use the seat. In my experience basically all bicycle seats suck.
When Honda brought out the Motocompacto, it was all you heard about… for maybe a couple months. There was even some scalping. If it had been truly successful, we would have seen a dozen Chinese knockoffs by now. I haven’t seen a single one.
I suspect the same would happen with this.
But is it a Light Road Vehicle under section 17 of the Japan Road Traffic law?
There is a new contender for the storage area of my cambulance.
3 wheels are better than two if the vehicle leans.
Agreed
That reminds me that Piaggio never sold the MP3 PHEV variants in the US and that makes me sad.
:'(
I have a MP3 500 – really fun bike and close to impossible to lose the front.
I can’t say that I would trust an Italian PHEV and the batteries and charger went under the seat and took up almost all of the storage.
I mean I think the MP3 would also work great as a BEV or range extended EV, but that’s just me
I’ve got a glorified Jeep trail down to my campsite, and some nice paths that this would be a blast on! Bring it on. Bonus points if it will fit into my RV.
Would make a nice friend for my motocompacto!
I love the utilitarian, aerospace-like “NASA-punk” style. Reminds of the vehicles you see in games like Starfield and shows like “For All Mankind”.
I’d rock it, though the lack of pedals puts into a legally gray area for the US market since it’s not technically an ebike.
Maybe a nicely manicured bike path, but with those tiny wheels and that geometry, I don’t see it doing too much else.
I get laughed at a lot on MTB trails for only having 26” wheels and 4” of front suspension.
I can’t fit a bigger/more modern bike in the trunk of a Z4 or GT86.
I bet I could fit a modern 29” wheel full suspension bike in a Land Cruiser.
A guy at my local trails fit’s an large size Specialized Turbo Levo in the back of his R33 GTR
*Much* disassembly is involved lol.
That is a damn cool car to use as a bike transporter.
When I go on my yearly MTB holiday I take two 26” wheel bikes (a 1999 Orange Ms Isle hardtail and an Orange Sub 5 full suspension) in the GT86. Wheels and pedals off, and very, very careful loading through the stupid tiny trunk door that should have been a hatch.
I used to just throw a load of bikes in the back of a diesel Ford Transit, but the 86 is so much more fun to throw around the Yorkshire roads.
I once managed to squeeze my 29″ hardtail in the back of my Corvette. Unfortunately, when I got to my destination I pulled it out and realized I had left the rear through axle sitting on my work bench when I took the wheel off. >:-(
I wish Fuji Bikes would bring back the Marlboro folding mountain bike.
Chromoly frame with 26″ wheels and no crazy frame compromises.
I had to look that up. Not many good pictures around, but using the seat post to lock it into position is an interesting solution.
You see them show up surprisingly often on Ebay.
Most folding bikes have aluminum frames and while fine for casual riding metal fatigue is real an aluminum likes to suddenly fail on you. Chromoly of the proper thickness has an unlimited fatigue life and a ton more flex than mild steel
I stared at some pics for a while trying to figure out how it folded – assuming the seat was a pivot point.
It took me a while to get it.
I put my 29″ BMC hardtail XC bike on a rack on the back of my little Prius C. The bike looks comically huge on the back of such a small car.
Yeah, my first thought on seeing the headline was that fitting in the back of a Land Cruiser doesn’t seem like a feat, especially for something that folds up.